Carphone Warehouse fills up in Q4

CarphoneWarehouse shares hit a year high this morning after it posted strong growth for the fourth quarter.

Like-for-like revenue for Carphone Warehouse Europe was up three per cent, though it did give an actual figure, despite a 2.9 per cent fall in connections. By contrast Best Buy Mobile US connections were up 34.2 per cent.

The news pushed CPW shares up three per cent to 201p this morning.

Carphone's European earnings before interest for the full year were £114m, up from £97m last year.

For the year ending March 2011 Carphone expects its share of Best Buy Europe's profits to be between £47m and £50m.

Chief Executive Charles Dunstone said: "The demerger is now successfully completed, and we are moving into our next phase of growth... This Friday, we open our first UK Best Buy 'Big Box' store; Best Buy Mobile continues to show good potential in the US... and Virgin Mobile France is now moving into profit."

Carphone Warehouse Europe has 2,224 stores, down from 2,240 last year. It operates 206 franchises, compared to 219 last year. In the US it has 1,070 stores-within-stores and 77 standalone stores, up from 39 last year.